Essence Of: Question Thread!

[Karuka]

Ladies... Gentlemen. Cats, cads, and everyone in between! Thanks to your feedback and support, Essence Of is going forward!

Many thanks to BaBE, our prettiest plant monster, for continuing to produce this show. I'm hoping to make it bi-weekly. This thread is for our Q&A.

If you'd like to be on Essence Of or have us discuss a particular topic, please volunteer and/or make suggestions!

Episode 1: Essence of Roleplaying - co-starring BlackAndBlueEyes
Episode 2: Essence of Setting - co-starring Flames of Hyperion
Episode 3: Essence of Plot - co-starring Gnarl and Root
Episode 4: Essence of Villains - co-starring Kryos and Storm Veritas

Episode 4 questions:
1) What do you feel makes a great villain?
2) How do you utilize villains in your stories?
3) If you write a villainous protagonist, how do you strike a balance between their actions and their palatability to your audience?

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

I would like to put my name forward to be a guest on the show. If you'll have me, anyway.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I am the prettiest plant monster? :3

[Karuka]

Check post one for questions!

[Medeia]

What is setting to you?

Setting is the time and surroundings in which your story takes place. It affects everything from mood to dialect, regional quirks, and how your characters interact with one another. It defines and gives dimension to your story, taking literature from written words, to a submersion in a character's life. Without a proper setting, personal connections and an overall feeling of empathy for your characters becomes almost impossible to create with your readers.

What is enough setting, as opposed to too much?

In my opinion, enough setting allows your readers to create a mental picture of the background you are dropping your character into without subtracting or distracting from the story itself. Too much definition becomes bulky and difficult to power through and you never want your reader to feel that way. Prime example: Robert Jordan. While I love his work, (I really do. The WoT series is and will probably always be one of my favorites.), oftentimes his descriptions of places were too detailed, and I found my interest flagging until he dug back into the story.

How do you apply setting in your own work?

I try to walk the tightrope between descriptive and abstract setting. I try to give enough so that a reader is given a good visualization of my characters' surroundings, without becoming too long-winded and blustering. It's not exactly an art I've perfected yet, but it's one I am steadily working at improving. My idea of a perfect setting would let my reader submerse themselves in my world, without ever realizing I was ever there in the first place.

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

What is setting to you?

Setting is a key framework and consists of an important mixture of different interconnecting catagories: time period, physical (or sometimes virtual) surroundings and culture and lore. All of these combined factors allow a person to create a setting for a story. The quality of a setting depends very much on the level of detail a person is prepared to go in to.

What is enough setting, as opposed to too much?

The key to creating a good setting is to strike a fine balance between having too much and having too little information. After all, the aim of your writing should be to pull in and engross the reader. They should be able to visualise the scene around them from the information you provide. But, and this is the hard bit, you need to tell them what's relevant. For example, when I created Telgradia, I created an entire planet. On a planet there are ecosystems, wildlife, races, religeons and cultures of which are simply too massive to explore within the writing. So, I narrowed it down to what was relevant to the story: if a character is strolling through Garah, Telgradia's capital city, I limit the information provided to what the buildings look like, what the importance is of some of the more relevant ones, and the type of people who live there. Perhaps also any recent history that has had an effect or shows a change in attitudes or lifestyles. No-one cares what type of fruit or vegetable you can find there, so only include whatever information applies.

How do you apply setting in your own work?

There's probably a bit of overlap with my second answer here, but I stick to relevant information. If I am describing a scene, I like to make sure that the reader can feel and see what Shinsou can. If there is frost on the ground, all the leaves will crunch if he steps on them. If he is having a fight in a tavern, I want the reader to visualise the chaos of bar stools shattering against people's skulls or the walls. I want the smell of beer wafting through the air, or the feeling of sticky shoes peeling off the stained wooden floors. Pull in your reader, make him or her feel like they are stood in the forest, or sat at the bar, or on the edge of that cliff. If I am describing something on a larger scale such as Telgradia, I like to open with visualisations - what is the weather like? Is it hot or cold? What do the buildings look like? What is the recent history of the place and how does that lead my character into the story he is telling? All of these things are so important and to make a good setting you need all of them in there.

[hoytti]

1) What is setting to you?

Setting is scenery. What is going on around your character at any given time.

2) What is enough setting, as opposed to too much?

A basic setting should include any distinguishing feature that is important to the landscape, whether it is a certain type of tree, a stange looking person, a mysterious building, a strangly shaped rock, or even a beautiful lake, as long as it can help place your character that is all that matters.

3) How do you apply setting in your own work?

I have trouble with this sometimes, I tend to want to get right to the action and skimp out on the setting, I build the setting as my character interacts with it. but since my character doesn't tend to interact wit scenery I don't usually have a setting. which I always get doct of.

[Kellai]

What is setting to you?
The “setting” provides a character with its vital context. It is the time, the place, the stage, the weather--even the flavor--by which a character gains depth and relevance. It is the backdrop in which a reader, or a viewer, can revel. As such, the setting is as vital to the overall story as the character itself is, and yet it should also never supersede either story or the character.

What is enough setting, as opposed to too much?
As others have said already, there is a fine line between “too little” and “enough,” and again between “enough” and “too much.” Additionally, depending on the world a writer is pulling from, whether it be one that is already established or one that the writer invents, that fine line is again obscured by relevancy. If, for instance, a writer is inventing a whole new world with its own laws of physics, s/he should definitely spend some time explaining them; but, s/he should do so in a way that compels the story further (rather than diverting from it). And that’s the key.

How do you apply setting in your own work?
As far as my own work goes: I tend to stay within the realm of my characters’ psyches (because role playing is my chance to explore psyches different from my own). So, depending on the character, I try to stay true to how they see the world around them. Sometimes, that means I paint a very tongue-in-cheek picture of what the character finds annoying. Sometimes, it means I have to get a little nerdier/arsty-fartsy with it. Sometimes, it’s just the necessities.

[Skie and Avery]

I find that the style I prefer to write with is more brief and introspective, so I tend to just focus on important setting details - sensory detailing that helps to create atmosphere or symbolic elements.

[The Mongrel]

Reminder to answer questions! We love answers!